Not Applicable
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
Current mechanical and electronic voting systems that do not involve physical alteration of ballot material by the voter do not provide for voter verification of the correctness of his or her own vote. Current voting systems that do involve physical alteration of ballot material by the voter to effect voting are subject to erroneous or incompetent handling by the voter. When such erroneous or incompetent handling by the voter occurs, the mechanical or electronic means for counting the votes on the ballot are affected, and the ballot may be rejected or the counting otherwise rendered inaccurate or suspect. The circumstance of ballot rejection or inconsistent mechanical tabulation in the case of erroneous or incompetent handling by the voter often requires manual examination of ballots, which is not only laborious and subject to its own inaccuracies, but is also inherently fraught with difficulty in maintaining the integrity of the election process. The principal object of the present invention is to provide a voter with a printed ballot prepared by a computer station and printer from input by the voter which completely and accurately presents the votes of the voter, and which is in a familiar form for easy review of his or her vote by the voter, so that machine and human error may be detected and corrected before the ballot is finally submitted by the voter for tabulation with the votes of other voters.
There is no prior art that this invention builds upon except its generic relationship to the well-known concept of electronic and mechanical voting machines, including those which produce a permanent paper record in addition to direct electronic and mechanical tabulation. However, there does not appear to be any prior art which combines accurate electronic or mechanical preparation of a printed ballot with an opportunity for review of the ballot by the voter and mechanical or electronic comparison of the printed ballot with the data stored from the voter input.
The present invention has elements that may be considered to be covered generally by class 235, particularly subclass 51 covering machines employed for casting and counting votes.
The present invention is a voting system and method which provides for auto-verification, auto-verification meaning here the process by which the voter has the opportunity and the responsibility to verify that the ballot with which he or she votes shows the votes as he or she intended. The voting system also provides for correction of the votes of the voter by the voter if the election ballot produced by a computer voting station from his or her voting input does not show the votes as he or she intended, such correction being effected by repeating the voting process and producing another printed ballot. The present invention provides a voter with a printed ballot prepared by a computer voting station with a printer from input by the voter which accurately presents the votes of the voter in a familiar form, and which the voter then submits as his or her votes.
The present invention employs a computer voting station which is a computer to which a display, an input device, and a printer are connected, and which is running a computer program for directing the voting process for the voter and for vote counting. A ballot scanning machine which is capable of reading ballot selection markings, such as the filled-circle, filled-oval, or filled-rectangle types of voting markings, may also be connected to the voting station. The computer program for the voting system displays the ballot for voting together with instructions for voting and provides for input of votes by the voter. The voter votes by selecting his or her preference in candidates or issue positions by means of an input device recognized by the computer program, and the computer program temporarily stores such vote information in memory or on storage media. A printed ballot produced by the computer voting station which shows the votes of a voter is then presented to the voter and either compared by the voter, or by operation of the computer program for the voting system with a ballot scanning machine, the machine capable of reading ballot selections, with the votes of the voter temporarily stored in the computer. The result of the comparison is then judged acceptable or unacceptable by the voter, in the case of comparison by the voter, or by the computer program for the voting system using the ballot scanning machine so that only printed ballots which show votes by the voter identical to the votes of the voter stored in the computer voting station will be accepted for final tabulation. Such final tabulation is then made by a tabulation machine for the precinct.